A Court of Mist and Fury (Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)

by Sarah J. Maas

[llamareads]

Soooo many feelings. First off, I liked this book better than ACOTAR (hence the rating). Is this book actually better than it, structurally, world-building, writing-wise? No. But I had some serious Black Jewels feels here, so that probably explains my reaction.

Look, I didn't like Tamlin in the first book, but I was annoyed by how he went from overprotective do-nothing to ridiculously abusive in like two seconds flat. PTSD, sure, but somehow it's OK for Feyre to make bad decisions because of what happened but not Tamlin? Not condoning what he did, at all, but geez, everything doesn't have to be black-and-white "he's the villain / he's the hero."

So Feyre now apparently has Super Awesome (TM) powers and OF COURSE Rhysand is like the Most Powerful High Lord EVER. Add in the wings, the whole Court of Nightmares/Court of Dreams stuff, etc and you can see why I couldn't help comparing this to the Black Jewels series... much like Feyre can't stop comparing Tamlin and Rhysand. Girl, we get it, OK? Rhysand is cinnamon roll perfection, blah blah blah. Despite that (!) I still enjoyed the romance, enjoyed watching Feyre come into her powers, enjoyed the world building. Most of all, I LOVED Rhysand's confession to Feyre and how all those bits and pieces from previous books could be seen from a different light.

I wish Maas had used the same precision with the actual plot, because oh boy, it's a mess. I have no idea how this is all going to be wrapped up, and thanks to the cliffhanger ending, I'm happy I'm reading this when the next book is already available.

So, in conclusion, romance with Rhysand, good, everything else, meh.